Perturbed over reckless mining being carried by private contractors on behalf of BCCL, posing problems of displacement, pollution, safety and security challenges to the local residents, more than 700 villagers of Kujama area of Jharia on Thrusday carried out a massive demonstration at the new project site of private contractor, M/s Dev Prabha Construction Pvt Ltd.

The protesters comprise women and children of surrounding villages who congregated under the banner of Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union, a local trade union affiliated to Central Industrial Trade Union (CITU) protested against the development of camp office of the project near their vicinity.

Tense situation prevailed at the site more than three hours between 10 am to 1 pm as the local residents were totally against the construction of the camp office of the project and also against the launching of the mining project.

The situation, however, came under control after the arrival of a team of BCCL officers led by project officer of Kujama Colliery, KK Singh which held talks with protesters in the presence of police officers and Lal Babu Singh one of managing director of Dev Prabha Construction Pvt Ltd and agreed to shift the location of the camp office of the project away from the residential areas and also assured to carry out mining quite away from the villages.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Rajendra Paswan, area president of Bastacola of Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union, said, “More than 500 families are living near the proposed mining site of the private contractors near Deepu Dhaura and the mining project will pose displacement problems."